Stranger Than Fiction

Synopsis

Harold Crick isn't ready to go. Period.

Everybody knows that your life is a story. But what if a story was your life? Harold Crick is your average IRS agent: monotonous, boring, and repetitive. But one day this all changes when Harold begins to hear an author inside his head narrating his life. But when the narration reveals he is going to die, Harold must find the author and convince them to change the ending.

I was just about literally blown away by this. The performances are top notch and the script surprisingly realistic. Stranger Than Fiction will always remind me that Will Ferrell can pull off just about anything it seems. I will definitely be adding this one to my collection and you should too.

Marc Forster's heartfelt Stranger than Fiction is the perfect Sunday afternoon film; funny, original, touching and a human-interest story, with Will Ferrell at his undisputed greatest.

What might have been another slapstick fantasy movie with cheap laughs à la Bruce Almighty or Click turns out to be a really clever and touching dramedy in the tradition of films like The Truman Show. In Stranger Than Fiction, he takes a plot that could have been created by Charlie Kaufman—Think Being John Malkovich & Adaptation—and creates a world that suggests fantasy yet is grounded in what we call reality. It is an inventive plot made convincing by sensitive direction and fine performances.

You may think, as I did before watching, that this was "That dumb Will Ferrell film where he was in a book or some shit." Once you've seen it, it will have exceeded those expectations. It's charming, with a nice little understated turn from Mr. Ferrell.

Sometimes a concept can be just as good as the finished article, and that's certainly the case with Marc Forster's engaging fantasy/comedy. Starring a subdued Will Ferrell giving a toned-down dramatic turn as a mild mannered IRS worker who starts to hear a voice in his head narrating his life and actions, this has an intriguing concept that hooks you from the off. Is he going mad? Is he a schizophrenic? Could the talk of his impending doom be real? And will he get to bed that gorgeous baker? It's playful, brilliantly written, and has a star-studded cast that includes Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, and the lovely Maggie Gyllenhaal, and they all invest in where writer Zach Helm wants to…

This is the first time I've seen Will Ferrell actually show off his acting in something much more dramatic. Obviously there's still his comedic roots, especially with the dry character he's playing and the bizarre, funny situations that Harold gets into. But Ferrell actually surprised me with how earnest he seemed. The other performances are great too. Maggie Gyllenhaal is fantastic as always, Emma Thompson shines as the author with a very interesting moral dilemma.

There's a lot of really interesting visuals here. The graphical overlays in the first half of the film that show Harold's inner analytics is a neat visual touch, especially with how polished they look as they zoom and spin around the screen. A lot of…

This is less a movie about being Will Ferrell and more a movie about being a writer and no one understands why you do the things you do. A magnificent piece of writing that speaks to every tortured creative mind.

Everything in this movie comes together better than it should. An expertly crafted script where every moment is loaded with intent, and great performances all around. Every writer should watch this movie.